Google plans move its Chicago office to the Fulton Market-area of the West Loop starting in 2016, Jim Lecinski, the head of the company's Chicago office and its vice president for U.S. sales and service, announced Thursday.

The Mountain View, Calif.,-based company will move from 150,000 square feet of leased space on Kinzie Street in River North to about 200,000 square feet in the under construction Fulton Market Cold Storage building at 1000 W. Fulton St.

Sterling Bay Cos., a fast-growing Chicago-based real estate developer, is in the process of converting the building for offices, which will be located amid some of the city's most cutting-edge restaurants.

"It's one block north of that fabulous new, $40 million green line 'L' stop," Lecinski said.

When asked whether 50,000 more square feet was all that the company needed, Lecinski said, "The configuration is different. The mechanical stack and the elevator banks are right smack in the middle, so we have to work in a racetrack here. It's a much more open floor plan there."

Google has had an office in Chicago since 2000, making it one of the company's earliest locations. The company employs about 500 people here, about half of whom work in sales and marketing, Lecinski said. The employment figure does not include workers in Google's Motorola Mobility unit, which operates independently, he said.

Crain's Chicago Business first reported Google was exploring the move.